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#FBF when I went to #las for my friend's wedding in September. I stopped by @cf_maxeffort to get a couple workouts in and met some fellow #canadians. Awesome facility, great coaches, great people! #CrossFit #maxeffort #strengthisbeauty #15point5 #crossfitcalgary (at CrossFit Max Effort)
@crossfitcalgary #athletes diligently watching and waiting for the announcement of the first #2015open workout #crossfitcalgary #crossfitgames #CrossFit
Alright...I'm in...let's see how far I've come after a year #2015open #CrossFit #crossfitgames #crossfitcalgary #canadawest #competetobebetter #progress @crossfitcalgary @crossfitgames @crossfit
After a long 5 days of fun in #lasvegas...it's good to be back home. Motor pattern was not working today...but better to start now than wait @crossfitcalgary #crossfitcalgary #yyc #snatch #barbell #happyplace (at CrossFit Calgary)
@kalibean14 crushed a #cupcake before heavy triple back squats today and grabbed a 30lbs #PR. I crushed a cakepop and grabbed a 30lbs PR for 365lbs backsquat! @crossfitcalgary #crossfitcalgary
Trying to sit in that catch/#overheadsquat position and get used to the feeling. @crossfitcalgary @crossfit #crossfitcalgary #hipcrease
@teamubermensch doing "weighted pull-ups" with a dumbbell, Kettlebell and a "medal" for today's #WOD demo 😂 @crossfitcalgary @jt.burke #crossfitcalgary (at CrossFit Calgary)
14.5 - Thrusters and Burpees.
Saturday March 29, 2014
14.5 - Thrusters and Burpees.
I think everyone knew that the last workout of the Open was going to be thrusters and burpees, but I don’t think anyone knew that the rep scheme was going to be as brutal as it was.
“The clock – save you it will not. You WILL do 168 reps or you will quit in the process of trying.”
Wow, as painful as this sounded, and seeing as how I’ve never really done a 95lb thruster or that high of volume of thrusters, I was actually excited for this workout. After the live announcement, just like every other, I headed to CFC and went to practice some movements and get a feel for what it’s going to feel like being in the “suck”.
Coach Colin (OG) and Coach Todd were teaching a class. After warming up, I grabbed a 95lb barbell and went to work. OG and Todd gave me some pointers to help with the thrusters, tell me to come out of the thruster to try and “launch” the bar overhead rather than “pressing” it overhead. After a few reps, I moved on to burpees. Making sure that there was a two-foot take off, and trying to close the distance between the bar and my feet to not waste energy I was now becoming aware how painful this workout was going to be.
“Try doing 5 thrusters and then 5 burpees to get a feel for the transitions.” Todd said making sure that I don’t do too much before the actual event. As I cleaned the bar into my first thruster and got it overhead, both Todd and OG said in unison “BREATHE”. I dropped the bar and laughed cause I know I have a bad habit of going through the first few reps of anything without breathing. I focused a lot on breathing and trying to get a rhythm.
Saturday came and 14.5 at CFC was officially underway. Not set heats for this workout, just wait until your name comes up and get after it. Coach Erin Ewasiuk was my judge for this workout. It felt like my whole CrossFit experience came around full circle today since Coach Erin was my coach for most of my Intro program at CFC. I told her my goal was to try and finish in less than 30 minutes.
I decided to break this workout into 3 sets if I could. It seemed like most people were thinking the same thing. Round of 21 felt pretty good on the thrusters, three sets of seven felt great, the burpees weren’t too bad, but they quickly got harder and harder. The tough part of this workout for me was mentally telling myself to do the three sets, there were times in the early rounds (round of 18 and 15) where I wanted to break it up into more sets but having the people at CFC cheer me on gave me the mental strength to keep them as three sets.
I think the my favorite part of this workout was the cheers from Erin beside me telling me “(The thrusters) are easy for you, just pick up the bar and do it” and later on towards the end of the workout “Okay, Ken, you have two minutes to finish this workout. Keep moving” as I got to the round of 6. When I got to the round of 3, I was so close to finishing and I just tried to push through as quickly as I could. Those last three burpees felt like death, probably because I held my breath as I did each one. As I lay on the ground, Erin comes up to me asking me to sign my scorecard but all I could do was raise my and to signify “I need a minute”.
29:13, I finished under 30 minutes. I met my goal. I was happy about it. It felt good to finish my first CrossFit Games Open on a high note and to give me the confidence that I could finish a workout like this. I think the best part was, no one at CFC gave up, everyone finished. It was a good confidence booster for a lot of us.
Later that evening as we got together to celebrate finishing the Open, we talked about how this last workout felt. My time was considerably slower than most people, but everyone was proud of what I was able to accomplish.
After two months of CrossFit, one Open competition, the community, the support, and the fun, I am ranked 67,581 out of 80,284 men worldwide and 1,675 or 1,917 men in the Canada West region. I can’t wait to see what will come next!
